After much secrecy from Irrational Games, Bioshock Infinite's release date was finally announced last week. If you live in the United States, you can expect to pick up a copy on October 16, while international gamers can expect to see it in stores a few days later on October 19. Also, it may be worth noting that the PC version of the game will be released on the same dates. That's very unusual, but hey, this is Bioshock after all.

We don’t expect to hear too much more about the game for a while, at least not until E3 2012.

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A few weeks ago we shared the story of an ambitious web series called Halo Helljumper, a small independent work based on the book “Dirt” by Tobias Buckell. Two episodes have hit the web since then, and now the folks behind the project are looking for your help. We think they stuff they've produced so far is top-notch and high quality, and so we wanted to support the cause and share the message:

The series is in need of raising $65,000 to complete the next two episodes and get them released. You can watch the first two Halo Helljumper episodes here on their channel.

It is probably safe to say that any modern gamer, and some non-gamers, know of the Halo Universe. With several books, an anime series, and seven video game titles (with an eighth on the way,) it is hard for most not to know of the Halo franchise. Many have felt for a long time that the Halo Universe still needed more. Some have even demanded that they see a live action Halo movie. Well, that time has come with Halo Helljumper, a live action series of short films.

Halo Helljumper takes place in the year 2552, right at the end of the Covenant Human war. The series is going to be highly based on the book “Dirt” by Tobias S. Buckell, and the talented team at “Filmpocalypse” has been brought together to make this monster. Directed by Dan Wang, and produced by Helena Hilario and Dan Wang, Halo Helljumper is going to be an Independent series of short films. There is not much else that we know about the series right now except that it is due to be released later this month.

Since the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 this past November, many were left wondering what was next in store for the Call of Duty franchise. With seemingly every American war being fought in one of their games and having made up a war in the near future, we may have seen the final Call of Duty game release last year. Is this necessarily a bad thing though? The Call of Duty franchise and especially the Modern Warfare series have been raved by gamers as the best video game series of the last several years. With thrilling and fast paced online multiplayer that Mountain Dew guzzlers love and customizability that the hardcore gamer can submerge themselves into, who can argue that it isn’t?

Electronic Arts said Monday that its Battlefield 3 game has sold five million units on a worldwide basis within its first week, the fastest-selling game in EA's history.

The company admitted to some server instability, however, but claimed it was minor: the average service uptime remained at 98.9 percent throughout the weekend, with only some "intermittent disruption of online services due to high volume," according to the developer.

Battlefield 3, the latest wartime first-person shooter title from DICE and Electronic Arts, arrived in stores on October 25th, launching the opening salvo in this fall's FPS conflict. Available for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360, Battlefield 3 arrives days before Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which is slated for release on November 8th.

Details are leaking out for the contents of the ultra-deluxe Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 "Hardened Edition," the fancy name for what amounts to the collector's version of the game, which you can pre-order now on Amazon. And the news doesn't come a moment too soon for rabid Call of Duty fans: According to new predictions from publisher Activision-Blizzard, the latest title in the series is expected to sell even more pre-sale copies than its previous versions.

It's not as if Activision-Blizzard has remained blind to the popularity of its first-person-shooter franchise, however. A brand-new subscription service is expected to be released alongside the November launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Dubbed, "Call of Duty: Elite," the service will give gamers the option for signing up for a free account or "premium" access to the service for the cost of $50 a year, or nearly the cash equivalent of one brand-new Call of Duty title.

So what's the point? According to Activision-Blizzard's official announcement for Elite, the online network will contain, "a wide range of state-of-the-art services, exclusive entertainment programming and all-inclusive game content for less than the cost of any comparable online entertainment service currently in the market."

Modern Warfare 3, the next video game in the enormously popular Call of Duty franchise, is set for a Nov. 8, 2011 release and Activision on Tuesday teased the eagerly awaited title with an action-packed trailer (video below).

Earlier this month, gaming site Kotaku claimed that a leaked audio clip from Modern Warfare 3 contained a reference to SEAL Team Six, the Navy commandoes who took out Osama bin Laden on May 2.

If that reference exists, it wasn't contained in the official trailer, which managed to whet Call of Duty fans' appetites for what looks to be a blockbuster first-person shooter jam-packed with high-stakes action in "the next global conflict."

"It doesn't take the most powerful nations on Earth to create the next global conflict, just the will of a single man," intones a brief spot of narration in the trailer. That conflagration kicks in the streets of New York, presumably following through on a Russian invasion that was imminent at the end of Modern Warfare 2.

The action then moves to England, France, and Germany. Clips of crashing trains, tank battles, tumbling buildings, air strikes, amphibious assaults, and lots and lots of street fighting are interspersed throughout.

Developer Kuma Games has released an update to its first-person-shooter Kuma War 2 that allows gamers to protect—or kill—Osama Bin Laden. And this isn't just some Unreal Tournament-style skin job: No, Kuma Games has faithfully recreated a map based on the assault on Bin Laden's Abbottabad, Pakistan compound.

The mission, "Osama 2011," comes as the 107th and likely final update to the company's free squad-based first-person shooter. When joining the game, Kuma War players are automatically assigned to one of two teams for the final Bin Laden mission: U.S. Navy SEALS, tasked with killing Bin Laden and recovering the body, or Bin Laden defenders, who have to save Bin Laden from harm by eliminating all opposing players.

"At Kuma, we are very sensitive and respectful of American and coalition soldiers and the sacrifices they are making every day," said Kuma Games CEO Keith Halper in an interview with Forbes. "We hope that by telling their stories with such a powerful medium that we enable the American public to gain a better appreciation of the conflicts and the dangers they face."

Innovation in video games is terrific—sometimes. But with certain ideas and series, particularly the simplest ones, the smartest thing to do can be to just expand and build on the concept but not change it very much. That's the choice Valve Software has made with Portal 2, the ravenously awaited sequel to the addictive and brain-twisting 2007 first-person puzzler. Judging from our initial half-day with the game, Valve has chosen wisely.

The original Portal, first released as part of the Orange Box collection, was maddening because it was so straightforward, and delightful because of its rampant dementedness. As a test subject trapped in the Aperture Science building, you were armed only with a gun that could create up two dimensional portals: shoot a blue one, shoot an orange one, then run through one to emerge from the other. Strategy and physics played key roles as you struggled to discover what happened to the all the office workers, evade turret fire and pits of foul-looking liquid, and determine what the nature was of the teasing and tormenting computer (the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System, or GLaDOS) that made jokes at your expense every 30 seconds.

Portal succeeded because its formula was both hard to screw up but easy to love. It was both rigorously adult (some of the levels were hard, and many of the bonus boards all but impossible), and yet faultlessly cute (who can forget the baby-voiced android weapons, or the Weighted Companion Cube emblazoned on all six sides with hearts). This meant that anyone of any age could play it, and because it required just a handful of keys or buttons (far fewer than the average shooter), you didn't even need to be an experienced gamer. As if realizing this, Valve even structured the game to provide to provide its own fully integrated tutorial so you could master tricky concepts without being aware you were learning everything.

In fact, the most commonly cited problem with the game was that it was too short: Nineteen levels and it was done. For years, people have been crying out for more levels and more snappy wit—and with Portal 2, that is what Valve has almost exclusively provided.

We've played "Duke Nukem Forever." We swear we've played it. We've even brought back proof that we played it. And when we played it, Gearbox president Randy Pitchford promised us—promised us!—unequivocally that the game would be released May 3. Today, word has emerged that the game is being delayed until June 14 in the United States and June 10 internationally.

We're crushed, but we suppose we shouldn't be surprised. Duke Nukem Forever is the most-delayed title in the modern history of game development. Originally slated for release in 1997—and that's not a typo—this sequel to 1996's "Duke Nukem 3D" has seen countless changes of hands, vanishing and reappearing developers, lawsuits, and more trade shows than PCMag's intrepid staff. It's even won Wired's Vaporware of the Year of the Award more than once—several times after it received a 2004 lifetime achievement award.